August 12, 2008

an expert comments on the story of the UK’s first baby born from a fast-frozen embryo

The baby was born following IVF treatment using a technique that involves the fast-freezing of embryos to reduce damage caused by the freezing process, and was reported as being the first case of its kind in the UK.

Dr Simon Fishel, Managing Director of CARE Fertility Group, said:

“The story on the news today put out by the Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust about the UK’s first birth from vitrified embryos is 17 years out of date! I introduced this technology in 1991 and the first baby, Laura was born in October 1992 and was reported in the media at that time – called the “sugar drop” baby. This news piece has been on our CARE Fertility website for many years under the banner “1992 Britain´s first ‘sugar drop’ frozen embryo baby.”

“At the time of the birth the HFEA placed a moratorium on this technology as “too new”, but gradually it has been introduced in recent years. CARE Fertility has had many babies from vitrified embryos, indeed our recent new chromosome technology announced in the media several months ago resulted in babies born that were originally frozen as vitrified embryos.

“The truly latest technology, which we have been the first to introduce, is vitrifying eggs – this has created a paradigm shift in IVF technology.”